Wakalat Anba’a al Emarat (WAM), the official news agency of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced on Monday that the President of the UAE, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, had issued a new federal law to ‘combat the trade of use of banned substances in horse racing and equestrian sports events in the UAE’. The agency said that the law aimed to ‘protect legitimate competition in the sport and eliminate fraud while promoting the principle of sportsmanship’. The new law comes into force as Federal Law No. 7 of 2015 and the Implementing Regulations have been issued by the UAE Cabinet, which contain detailed procedures for law enforcement provisions.

The UAE reportedly hopes that the law will encourage research into combatting banned materials in horse racing and to develop detection and preventive strategies, as well as educate those in the industry about the seriousness using banned substances. The trading of banned substances and materials will be banned unless a licence approved by the UAE’s Ministry of Environment and Water is obtained, which will be granted exclusively for therapeutic purposes and research. The giving or injecting or any attempt to do so with any prohibited substance, or the use of a banned substance without an approved licence will also be prohibited by the new law. This is in addition to any refusal to test a horse, the manipulation of any control procedures and tests for substances and either helping, arranging, encouraging or covering up any process related to giving banned materials to horses.

Anyone who violates any provision of the new law will be fined no less than AED 20,000 (€4,870) and no more than AED 200,000 (€48,700). If the offence is repeated within three years from the date of committing the previous offence, the fine will be doubled to not more than AED 500,000 (€121,730), in addition to the aforementioned fines. On top of the fines an offence could also lead to a ban from horse racing and equestrian sport, a ban from working within such events, or a the closure of the offending establishment for a period of up to three years, as well as the cancellation of an establishment’s licence during that period.

The new law comes shortly after a series of allegations and investigations into the Emirates Equestrian Federation (EEF) earlier this year, after which the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) suspended the EEF for an ‘indeterminate period following an investigation by the FEI into major horse welfare issues and non-compliance with FEI Rules and Regulations in the discipline of Endurance’. The EEF formally appealed its provisional suspension, but the FEI dismissed the request for its interim lifting. In this ruling, the FEI outlined its reasons for the original suspension, which included the fatality of a horse competing during a rest period; other horses not complying with the rest periods; not respecting the age of horses; post mortems; issues to do with an Endurance Cup event in 2015; and not cooperating with the FEI.